Thermal applications of hybrid phase change materials: A critical review

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCM) with their high latent heat capacity have a great ability to store energy during their phase change process. The PCM are renowned for their applications in solar and thermal energy storage systems for the purpose of heating and cooling. However, one of the major drawbacks of PCM is their low thermal conductivity due to which their charging and discharging time reduces along with the reduction in energy storage capacity. This reduction in the energy storage capacity of PCM can be improved by producing organic-inorganic hybrid form-stable PCM, with the combination of two or more PCM together to increase their energy storage capacity. Nanoparticles that possess high thermal conductivity are also doped with these hybrid PCM (HPCM)to improve the effectiveness of thermal conductivity. This paper presents a short review on the applications of HPCM in energy storage and building application. Apart from this a short section of applications of composite PCM (CPCM) is also reviewed with discussions made at the end of each section. Results from the past literature depicted that the application of these HPCM and CPCM enhanced the energy storage capacity and thermal conductivity of the base PCM and selection of a proper hybrid material plays an essential role in their stability. It is presumed that this study will provide a sagacity, to the readers, to investigate their thermophysical properties and other essential applications.

Energy Recovery in Air Conditioning Systems: Comprehensive Review, Classifications, Critical Analysis, and Potential Recommendations

“…The challenge is to augment the latent heat storage capacity [107] Rotary Enthalpy Wheel [108] Rotary Wheel (RW) exchanges heat and humidity from one air stream to another. The wheel rotates at a constant speed, the channel is subjected to two counter-flow arrangement streams.…”

Lattice Boltzmann simulation on thermal performance of composite phase change material based on Voronoi models*

“…However, the renewable energy including wind energy, wave energy and ocean thermal energy, the renewable energy has drawbacks of instability and nonuniformity in space and time distribution. To make up for these deficiencies, the latent heat storage (LHS) technique, in which the PCM is used to store energy in fields of the building energy saving, [1] thermal storage system, [2] PV-efficiency enhancement, [3] new materials, [4] and electronic devices cooling, is adopted, [5] in that it has lager energy density and temperature stability. [6] However, most of PCMs have drawbacks of low heat storage rate.…”

Effect of airflow channel arrangement on the discharge of a composite metal foam‐phase change material heat exchanger

“…8 LHS has almost isothermal condition during phase change but it is difficult to produce uniformity of the output temperature. 9 There have been several studies related to enhancing the efficiency of PCM units including geometry modification and inclination angle, 10,11 adding nanoparticles, [12][13][14][15][16] adding fins, [17][18][19] adding metal foam, 20,21 using a suspension encapsulated PCM, 22,23 and integrating with heat pipes. 24 There are also some investigations, which used the magnetic field to control the phase change heat transfer.…”